The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired a recently rediscovered Renaissance painting, 'Madonna and Child with Saint John the Evangelist,' by Rosso Fiorentino. The work, believed lost for centuries, was identified after conservation removed layers of overpaint, revealing the figure of Saint John. The Met has already placed the painting on view in its European painting galleries.
The acquisition is significant because the painting is directly described in Giorgio Vasari's foundational art historical text, 'Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,' linking it to the discipline's inception. As a rare, documented early work by a key Mannerist painter, it reshapes understanding of Rosso Fiorentino's early career and the development of the expressive, exaggerated 'modern style' that challenged High Renaissance ideals.